TEHRAN: Iran launched extensive military drills on Thursday, local media reported, in a show of strength stretching several hundred kilometers from the Strait of Hormuz to the Gulf of Aden.

The exercises are set to last six days and involve ballistic missile and drone testing, according to military officials.

Close to 13,000 personnel will take part in the drills, which will be the first time Iran has organized military maneuvers so far from its coastline.

The southeastern provinces of Hormozgan and Sistan-Baluchistan will also be included in the tests, with the Iranian army, air force, navy and Revolutionary Guards participating.

“One of the aims of these maneuvers is to increase our defensive capability... and to transfer this experience to young” personnel, army chief general Abdolrahim Moussavi told state television.

Meanwhile, Iran has rejected claims by Mehmet Ali Agca that late Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini ordered him to assassinate Pope John Paul II. The Turkish gunman earlier this week reiterated in a Serbian TV interview the claims he made in his book “They Promised Me Paradise.” Agca says he told John Paul of the Iranian connection when he visited him in prison.

The Iranian Embassy in Belgrade on Thursday strongly denied the claims, saying “Imam Khomeini during his rich spiritual life maintained very good relations with different religions, including the pope.”